Overview

"A journey through both a physical landscape and the geography of the human heart and mind...delightfully entertaining and often deeply moving, this book reminds us that Austen's world—and her characters—are very much alive."—Michael Thomas Ford, author of Jane Bites Back

Overview

"A journey through both a physical landscape and the geography of the human heart and mind...delightfully entertaining and often deeply moving, this book reminds us that Austen's world—and her characters—are very much alive."—Michael Thomas Ford, author of Jane Bites Back

WHERE DO BOOKS TAKE YOU?

With a suitcase full of Jane Austen novels en español, Amy Elizabeth Smith set off on a yearlong Latin American adventure: a traveling book club with Jane. In six unique, unforgettable countries, she gathered book-loving new friends— taxi drivers and teachers, poets and politicians— to read Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice.

Whether sharing rooster beer with Guatemalans, joining the crowd at a Mexican boxing match, feeding a horde of tame iguanas with Ecuadorean children, or tangling with argumentative booksellers in Argentina, Amy came to learn what Austen knew all along: that we're not always speaking the same language— even when we're speaking the same language.

But with true Austen instinct, she could recognize when, unexpectedly, she'd found her own Señor Darcy.

All Roads Lead to Austen celebrates the best of what we love about books and revels in the pleasure of sharing a good book— with good friends.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Reading literature is always an act of translation, but reading it in another language often can be a great leap of faith. Jane Austen devotee Amy Elizabeth Smith attempted that act of courage when she taught Pride and Prejudice and other novels in no fewer than six Latin American countries (Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, and Paraguay). All Roads Lead to Austen is her touching, self-effacing recap of her encounters with new millennium Spanish-language readers who were able to grasp the writing and identify with the characters of a 19th century British Regency novelist. A charming memoir about spanning differences; a trade paperback and NOOK Book original.

Publishers Weekly

In this humorous memoir, devoted Austen fan Smith, a writing and literature teacher, sets out to discover whether Austen’s magic translates for readers in six Latin American countries (Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina), where she organizes book clubs to discuss Spanish translations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Though Smith continuously calls attention to her limited Spanish language skills, she skillfully highlights how and why certain Spanish words are apt for describing Austen’s world and characters. Austen’s work provides a touchstone for surprising discussions about class, gender, and race, as well as history and literature. Smith’s account reads like an educational travel blog, full of colorful characters, overviews of the history and the traditions of each culture, as well as reflections on her own preconceived assumptions and stereotypes. This enjoyable book should appeal to fans of literature and travel, especially those interested in Latin America. Agent: Lisa Adams, The Garamond Agency. (June)

From the Publisher

"An illuminating insight into other cultures and a testament to Jane Austen's relevance in the modern world. Fascinating." - Amanda Grange, bestselling author of Mr Darcy's Diary.

"A journey through both a physical landscape and the geography of the human heart and mind, All Roads Lead to Austen deftly explores the universal themes of Austen's work while telling the story of Smith's own search for understanding, friendship, and, yes, love. Delightfully entertaining and often deeply moving, this book reminds us that Austen's world—and her characters—are very much alive." - Michael Thomas Ford, author of Jane Bites Back

"Smith's account reads like an educational travel blog, full of colorful characters, overviews of the history and the traditions of each culture, as well as reflections on her own preconceived assumptions and stereotypes. This enjoyable book should appeal to fans of literature and travel, especially those interested in Latin America." - Publishers Weekly

" All Roads Lead to Austen, like the best of Austen's works, features a narrative as thoroughly enjoyable as the lively conversations it contains. The story of her travels - delivered with humor, poignancy, and insight - could stand on its own as an impressive travelogue. But as an Austen lover, I was thrilled to see conversations I've had time and again with fellow fans echoed by people whose lives and cultures are so different from my own. I truly loved this book!" - Amy Patterson, Jane Austen Books, Novelty, OH

"I loved this book! It's Eat, Pray, Love meets The Jane Austen Book Club-an unforgettable journey of the mind and heart. Amy Elizabeth Smith proves that Austen does indeed transcend time, place, and language, and we all have something to learn from her, if we will only listen. Amy's tale is so fascinating, thought-provoking, and real, I felt as if I were there with her, every step of the way. I cheered at the ending, and so will you." - Syrie James, bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen

"A delightful romp that should appeal to those who appreciate the savvier realms of chick lit." - Kirkus

"Narrated in a breezy style, this is a fun twist on the fascination with all things Jane." - Booklist

"Smith's narrative voice is so personable that it's almost like traveling with a friend (who isn't afraid to fess up to having a bad attitude at times or making snap judgments of people despite what she's learned from Austen's novels). " - Diary of an Eccentric

"Her tale is so fascinating, thought-provoking, and real, I felt as if I were there with her, every step of the way. I cheered at the ending, and so will you.

4.5 out of 5 Regency Stars" - Austenprose

"If by some chance, you missed your opportunity to study abroad, or have a case of wanderlust — All Roads Lead to Austen is the book for you this summer! Between discussing Jane Austen, exploring new countries, experiencing adventures and mishaps, and finding her own Mr. Darcy — Amy Elizabeth Smith delivers a deeply gratify study that illustrates the universal timelessness and limitless reach of Jane Austen! " - Austenesque Reviews

"As a huge Jane Austen fan, I was curious too to hear how readers in other cultures would respond to her works. I found their responses interesting to read." - Palmer's Picks for Reading

"Filled with vibrant locations and colorful characters, All Roads Lead to Austen brings Latin America to life with astonishing intensity." - Weatherford Fiction Examiner

"All this talk of literature brought out so many universal concepts to think about while contrasting cultural perspectives add educational interest. Mix that with the humor, the wonderful descriptions, engaging real-life characters, the mysterious disease, the romance and more, and this book makes for an excellent travel adventure." - Long and Short Reviews

"All Roads Lead to Austen provides the reader with clear, colourful and an insightful perspective of life, love, friendship and self discovery, enabled through the love of travel and reading. " - StillReading

" I am starting my summer travels, so a book about extensive traveling also was super-appealing. Luckily, Ms. Smith totally came through." - Caroline Bookbinder

"All Roads Lead to Austen is a wonderful, light, read.
" - A Crowded Bookshelf

"More than a discussion of Jane Austen and her books, All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith is an examination of one woman's journey through other worlds and learning how to go with the flow and find her own happiness in a world that moves blindingly.

" - Savvy Verse & Wit

"All Roads Lead to Austen has encouraged me to not only get around to reading those last two Austen novels but to also check out more travel literature. This is an interesting read for any Austen or travel fan!
" - Novel Escapes

"As it's always interesting to hear other persons' thoughts and reactions to books that you know and love, it was certainly a treat to read about so many thoughts and insights all at one point in time. I'm now craving a revisit of all of Austen's books." - Once Upon a Bookshelf

Kirkus Reviews

How successfully does the world of Jane Austen translate into Spanish? One intrepid author finds out in this travel memoir/literary exploration. On sabbatical, Austen devotee Smith (Writing and Literature/Univ. of the Pacific) embarked on a project to discuss Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma with reading groups in Latin America. Displaying the good cheer and wry humor befitting an Austenite (as opposed to, say, an Emily Brontë or George Eliot enthusiast), she plunged into Spanish immersion classes in Guatemala, then set off for a romantic fling and the first of several reading adventures in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Smith was happy to discover that Austen's genteel 19th-century English setting and formal narrative style proved to be relatable to her eager readers: Nearly all of them recognized their own lives in the plots and affirmed that issues of gender, class and familial obligation transcend era and locale. Smith ably captures the lively, often heated, tone of these literary gatherings and delves into the unique characteristics of each country, showcasing an Ecuadorean park teeming with iguanas, a multi-block stretch of Argentinean bookshops, and a tranquil Chilean monastery complete with its own on-site rooster. While the reading-group discussions tend to blur together by the end, Smith remains an engaging narrator throughout. A reader would need to possess either a truly cold heart or a pathological aversion to Austen to begrudge her the swoon-worthy happy ending to her tale. A delightful romp that should appeal to those who appreciate the savvier realms of chick lit.

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Amy Elizabeth Smith has an undergraduate degree in music and a masters and PhD in English. She teaches writing and literature (including a course on Jane Austen) at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She loves traveling, dancing, classic cinema, and watching squirrel videos on YouTube.

Read an Excerpt

Getting Started

Jane Austen just won't stay on the page.

I enjoy everything I teach at a small university in California, but I especially love my Jane Austen course. The students and I read her novels together, discuss Austen's historical context, and explore the amazing ways Austen keeps coming to life through sequels, updates, and spin-offs—Bridget Jones, Bollywood, zombies, and all. Instead of writing final papers, students do Austen projects that we showcase in December at a public Jane Austen Night bash. We've had Northanger Abbey in rhymed heroic couplets, a short play with the Dashwood sisters transformed into gay brothers, a sign language lesson using Austen plots, and my favorite, a marriage of Kafka and Austen: Emmamorphasis, wherein Emma wakes up one fine day as a giant cockroach (just imagine what her exoskeleton does to her best muslins!).

Austen moves her readers. Semester after semester, when my students talk about Austen's novels, they transition seamlessly between their own lives and Austen's fictional world. "My sister is such an uptight Elinor, she makes me crazy!" somebody will always say after we start Sense and Sensibility. Or, "Yeah, I've met a Willoughby or two." Or with endless variations, "Marianne needs a serious dope slap." By the end of each semester I can compile a list of the most smackable characters from student feedback: topping the charts are always Marianne, both Eltons from Emma, John Thorpe from Northanger Abbey, and of course, Mrs. Bennet.

Students just don't react this way to novels I teach in other classes, such as Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Austen's postmortem rivals wrote great novels, but not a single student has read Emily or Charlotte Brontë and reported back to the class, "That Heathcliff is just like my ex-boyfriend," or "Rochester's wife reminds me of my aunt," or "Somebody ought to pop Jane Eyre a good one!" Not once. Brontë World is to be viewed and enjoyed at a distance, but Austenland is a place where people feel inclined to get cozy with the locals, even give a few verbal wedgies. Or a dope slap.

It's not only my students who react this way to Austen. After a rough divorce, my friend Larry, a fellow native Pennsylvanian, went into an emotional tailspin. He ditched his job and, out of the blue, retrained as a railroad engineer. This led to long hours in hotel rooms between runs, either brooding alone or phoning me for where-did-it-go-wrong debriefs.

"You're an English teacher—what should I read?" he asked one evening, realizing we needed something to talk about other than his still-broken heart. "Would I like Jane Austen?"

Pride and Prejudice, her best-paced work, seemed a good recommendation for a man spending too much time staring out of train windows wondering how his marriage had gone off the rails. After a longer than usual silence, I got his first post-Austen call. "I liked it. Took a little getting used to the style, though," he said in his endearing Pittsburgh twang, à la "let's go daahntaahn 'n watch a Stillers game."

"You know," he went on, "I thought I married a Lizzy Bennet, but maybe I really picked a Lydia?" Well, so much for diverting him from divorce talk. As Larry made his way through all of Austen's novels—even Mansfield Park, whose heroine he dubbed the most "smackable" of all—our long conversations became populated by Emma, Captain Wentworth, Fanny Price, and others.

What is it about Jane Austen that makes us talk about the characters as if they're real people? People we recognize in our own lives, two centuries after Austen created them? When my first development leave from the university rolled around, I decided it was time for me to try my own Austen project, just like my students do. Something creative, something fun. So I got to wondering: the special connection that people feel with Austen's world, this Austen magic—would it happen with people in another country, reading Austen in translation?

Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran is one of the most moving books I've ever read on how literature matters in people's lives. She covered six different authors with the same group of students in post-revolution Iran. Inspired, I decided to try a new twist. Why not read the same author but shift through six different countries, instead? Jane Austen reading groups, on the road.

Growing up, I envied Nancy Drew's jet-setting ways, which set me on a course to travel at every opportunity as an adult. I spent a year in Prague in the early 1990s, and since my brother Shawn has an even worse travel bug than my own, I've tagged along like a good little sister to visit him when he lived in Italy, then South Africa, then Egypt. With that year's leave from the university ahead of me, I wanted to explore new territory: Central and South America.

In Clueless, the nineties update of Austen's Emma, the heroine Cher offends her family's Salvadoran maid by assuming that anybody who speaks "Mexican" must be a Mexican. But Cher's no worse than the average clueless North American. Central and South Americans are our neighbors, but all too many of us can't tell one country from another south of the border. At work I'd met latinos and latinas from a host of countries I couldn't locate without studying a map.

So, on the road I could pick up some firsthand knowledge while seeing what Latin Americans would make of Jane Austen. Would they identify with her characters? Or maybe want to smack a few? Plus, I could find out who their Jane Austens were—which authors are beloved in Central and South America, which novels come to life off the pages. It would be a whole new world of books (and bookstores!).

Unfortunately, the only lesson I remembered from high school Spanish was that pero means "but" and perro, "dog." Thanks to my university's ties with a language school in the city of Antigua, I settled on Guatemala for both a warm-up and a starting point. The plan was to take five weeks of Spanish lessons during my winter break, then return in July to begin my "year with Jane" in earnest; I'd do my first reading group there.

The second country would let me mix business with pleasure. I'd made two short trips to Puerto Vallarta prior to cooking up my Austen project. In fact, maybe that influenced my planning—because in Mexico I'd met Diego, a cheerful, handsome taxi driver who also happened to be a booklover. We were both eager for a much longer visit. I wasn't a fan of long-distance relationships, but there was something special about Diego. I was willing to jump in and see how things might turn out.

For country number three, I decided on Ecuador, where I could visit a friend-of-a-friend in Guayaquil. The next and longest stop would be Chile. I signed on to teach with a study abroad program for a semester in Santiago, where I was sure I could find some interested Austen readers. After that I'd head for Paraguay to stay with another friend-of-a-friend. Even without a connection, who could resist a mysterious, allegedly dangerous place almost nobody can find on a map? For the big finale, I'd spend a month in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I didn't know a soul there, but it seemed fitting that Jane Austen should wrap up her Latin American tour in the city many consider the literary capital of South America.

With five weeks in Antigua under my belt (and plenty of practice), I had a foundation for speaking Spanish. As I read and planned, I could see that each country would be unique, but the five-week language trip offered me a taste of what to expect. I walked the cobbled streets of a colonial Spanish city; I saw looming, active volcanoes; I heard marimba music at midnight; I learned to make my way through Conan the Barbarian stories in Spanish.

Come that May, there wasn't a student on campus more eager than I was to bolt. Was I nervous about spending a year away from family and friends, trying to function in a foreign language I had a tenuous grip on while convincing several dozen people in six different countries to join me for book groups? You bet. Was I excited about the trip anyway? You bet! When classes were done, I packed up my worldly goods and found new homes for my chickens—three Cochins, a white Silkie hen, and Nikolaus-Nikolaus, a strutting Frizzle rooster named after a stern German ancestor. Stopping through in Pennsylvania, I bought my mom a computer so we could use email along with phone calls; she's a worrier. And I visited my father's grave.

One evening a few years back, he'd set down the book he'd been reading and a heart attack took him fast, right there at home with the woman he'd loved for fifty years. The book was a novelization of Casablanca, a film he'd seen repeatedly, so as my dad slipped away, he wasn't even troubled with any nagging questions about how it would all turn out. To me, that's kind of a big deal. Unless I go in my sleep, I fully expect to be dragged off to eternity with at least three half-read books around somewhere, wryly wondering the genre-appropriate version of "Damnation, whodunit?!"

Raised by booklovers, I'll be a booklover 'til the end. In fact, now that I'm back from Latin America, I regret only one thing connected with my year's travels—that my father, the man who built me my first bookshelves, won't get to meet the devoted reader I'm about to marry, someone who played a role in my Austen adventure. Diego from Mexico? Maybe. Maybe not. But I will say this: as Austen fans know, when Austen's in the picture, somebody's going to end up hitched.

My dad would have loved my fiancé's sense of humor and his insight. After I'd returned to the States and was talking to some people about the book groups I'd done, one of them frowned and said, "That was superimposing European literature on those people, you know." The man didn't outright call me a Yankee Imperialist Pig-dog, but that seemed to be the subtext. When I passed this comment on to my fiancé, he was both annoyed and amused.

"Sounds like he's confusing you with the CIA in the 1970s," he said. "So latina cultures are so feeble that we can't enjoy a Jane Austen novel without our literary world collapsing? Somebody needs to learn a bit about Latin America."

Austen was a fan of not making assumptions—of avoiding prejudices—of making sure you're reading a situation (or a person or a place) very carefully. She never set foot outside of England, but what she has to teach about astute reading applies across time, across borders, and even, as I came to learn, across languages.

I wish I could say that I never made any gaffes of my own while traveling, that I never brought too much old baggage to new places or into relationships with people I met. But thanks to bad judgment (and at times, bad Spanish), I wound up in quite a few bonehead situations. Like fleeing from a ghost in a Mexican bookshop—putting a scare, myself, into some unfortunate Ecuadorians in a grocery store—fending off an amorous senior citizen in a Chilean laundry room—and on one stellar occasion, barely escaping a good hard soaking from a police water cannon.

Fate stepped in at times too, independent of my own blunders, to deal some painful surprises. I struggled for months with the most serious illness of my life, much to my poor mother's distress. I made it through—but not all of the smart, warm, incredible new friends I met along the road were still around by the time I reached the end of it.

Yet, as Austen well knew, life's challenges and sorrows help us appreciate what goes right. No amount of stumbling on my part could spoil the pleasures of drinking rooster beer in Guatemala; of floating in the gentle sea at Puerto Vallarta; of feeding a hoard of tame iguanas in an Ecuadorian park; of seeing the snowcapped Andes in Chile; of riding a rocking horse in a Paraguayan nightclub; of watching seductive Argentineans tango on a narrow street in Buenos Aires on a chilly afternoon.

In every country I visited, I had the pleasure of not just learning but living a new language, along with the nerdy fun of browsing bookstore after Spanish-language bookstore. And the Austen reading groups—each so different from the others, each letting me see Austen in surprising, enlightening, amazing new ways. On top of it all, I wound up with a nice old-fashioned happy ending, one that still leaves me and my fiancé marveling at our own dumb luck for having crossed paths in the first place.

It was a wonderful year, mistakes and all. The funny thing is, I made my very biggest mistake before I even hit the road: I set off on my travels thinking of myself as a teacher, just because that's how I earn a living.

Table of Contents

Contents
Author's Note
Getting Started
GUATEMALA: Girls' Night Out
MEXICO: Sense in the Land of Sensibility
ECUADOR: Pride, Prejudice, and Tame Iguanas
CHILE: Austen in the Andes
PARAGUAY: Assumptions and Asunción
ARGENTINA: Last Tango in Highbury
The End and the Beginning
Reading Group Guide
Acknowledgments
About the Author

Amy Elizabeth Smith has an undergraduate degree in music and a masters and PhD in English. She teaches writing and literature (including a course on Jane Austen) at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She loves traveling, dancing, classic cinema, and watching squirrel videos on YouTube.

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A happy discovery

A thorougly enjoyable trip exporing Latin America along with a Jane Austen enthusiast. Her aim was to find if those in Latin America would relate to Jane Austen's characters with as much involvement as her California students. The people she meets in the various countries are varied and interesting. It's also a good look at the different cutures and ideals which are of inportance to these people as highlighted in her book clubs in each country. Ms. Smith's travelogue is full of surprises. well worth your time and money. I will read it again and again.

36 out of 40 people found this review helpful.

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BookLover536

Posted June 6, 2012

A Must Read for any Austen Fan

This book is really entertaining and interesting. I loved the way the author shared personal stories of her adventures in Central and South America while also incorporating the reactions of the different book clubs to Austen. A must read for anyone really.

26 out of 29 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted May 15, 2012

Austen travels well across cultures

The Austen fan and budding interculturalist in me truly enjoyed this travel journal of Latin America. I'll refer back to this work often.

14 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted July 13, 2012

Nice journey

A nice weaving of Austen and South American culture.

8 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 7, 2012

I had no problem eith getting iy for free

Though I haven't rrad this yet but it has good editorial reviews so I am willing to try it. At least we are offered the opportunity to try new books of different genres. This is not the forum for complaints about what books. That should go to thd marketing depargment. Free is a privalage

6 out of 23 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 10, 2012

I loved how Jane Austen's real life and books was interweaved with Amy's experiences and thoughts.

I learned a lot about the different Spanish-speaking cultures, along with the varous readers' views on feminism. The book also "brougjt home" that there is more than one way to interpret a story. And, of couse, I was compltely surprised by the was the book ended.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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BibliophileDG

Posted September 10, 2012

I found Amy's travel adventures most realistic and honest. I ap

I found Amy's travel adventures most realistic and honest. I appreciate the varied cultural and socioeconomic responses to her queries. Absolutely fascinating. The author somehow managed to make this an entertaining weekend escape! Well done, Dr. Smith! Well done!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 9, 2012

An enjoyable read. I started it, thinking I would not like it, b

An enjoyable read. I started it, thinking I would not like it, but was delightfully surprised. The author travels all over Central and South America, forming Jane Austen reading groups. It was fascinating to have various cultural insights on Austen's work as well as learning about the places Smith visited. She has a talent for conveying her acquaintances' personalities and for including her own humorous cultural missteps.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 7, 2012

Anonymous

This was an interesting book, lots of varied characters, one of which she ended up marrying. I envied this author, having the means and time to travel and live in so many different places. I didn't really get the gist of the Jane Austin novels and the reading groups. Was that the only reason for all that traveling and what was her need to know about how people reacted to the novels. It seems

3 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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DM_Bolter

Posted October 5, 2012

Highly Recommend

This was a Free Friday Nook book. They need to have more of these books on Free Friday ! Purchased it not knowing it was a non-fiction. I prefer them actually to fiction. One of the best "Austen" books I have read. Well written and I could not put it down. Funny and enlightening at the same time. Worth your time and money.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 11, 2012

Great book!

This is an amzing book and I think it is appropriate for all ages. I am twelve years old and I loved it. The only issue was that there WERE a few curse words but not very many.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted January 9, 2015

If you love reading Jan Austen you will appreciate this book

If you love reading Jan Austen you will appreciate this book

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Anonymous

Posted May 21, 2014

Interesting

I'm not a fan of Austen, but found this book lover's journey enjoyable. What a dream to travel and discuss books.

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Anonymous

Posted January 14, 2014

a good book for Austen lovers

While it took me a long time to read this book I was impressed with how the writer detailed her travels to the various places. I have only read 1 Jane Austen book but this book has encouraged me to go back and read Austen's others book. I definately think you have to have read at least one of Austens books to know what /who the author is referring to.

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Anonymous

Posted January 10, 2014

not what i thought

the book was not what i thought it would be. there were a lot of slow and boring parts. the best part was the last chapter and the end of the book.

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Anonymous

Posted September 12, 2013

Interesting on many levels ...

I really enjoyed Amy Smith's "year-long journey" in South America! Before reading this I read Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, and Emma, which are the same books discussed in her book groups. I think it helped to be familiar with Austen's stories.

Amy Smith discussed the cultures and the recent (last 50-100 years) political histories of each of the six countries she visited. I enjoyed the character descriptions of the various members of the book club, along with their interactions in the book group discussions, relating their lives and attitudes to those described by Austen.

Not only was I entertained by her experiences, I found I learned quite a bit about the cultural and linguistic differences between the six countries.

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mellis

Posted September 9, 2013

When I got this book, I thought it was fiction. Imagine my surpr

When I got this book, I thought it was fiction. Imagine my surprise when I learned that it was a true account of her journey to learn other thoughts of Jane Austen's books from a different culture. I really enjoyed this book and loved the history of the countries that she visited. It has made me want to go back and re-read some of Jane's books plus some of the newer takes on these stories. Very good book.

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Anonymous

Posted September 8, 2013

Liked

Enjoyed the perspective of different countries. And the tease till the end of who she ended up with!

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Anonymous

Posted September 7, 2013

Not sure

Should read Jane Austen first. I did not and this made a good book slow.

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Anonymous

Posted August 30, 2013

Yes, Jane.

Great journey with Jane. If you liked "Julie and Julia" you will love this one I think. After reading this, I want to know more about Jane. I want to reread her books. People are people. We and they are all part of the same family in this human race. I was able to travel South America while never leaving my small town. Now, maybe I will...

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